1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a card transporting mechanism in a card reader. More particularly, the invention relates to a card transporting mechanism of the type in which a card is transported in a state that the card is firmly held with engaging/holding means.
The present invention relates to a drive-force transmission mechanism and a card transporting mechanism using the same. More particularly, the invention relates to a drive-force transmission mechanism for selectively transmitting a rotation of a motor to one of two drive systems, and a card transporting mechanism for a card reader, for example, which uses the drive-force transmission mechanism.
The present invention relates to a shutter opening/closing mechanism. More particularly, the invention relates to a shutter opening/closing mechanism adaptable for the opening and closing of a card entrance of a card reader (writer).
2. Related Art
A card transporting mechanism of the type in which the card is transported in a state that the card is firmly held on a card table (Examined Japanese Patent Publication Hei 5-84588) is known for a card transporting mechanism for transporting a card as an information recording medium. In this type of the card transporting mechanism, a card engaging/holding member is moved by the utilization of a moving operation of the card table, to thereby firmly hold the card on the card table. Specifically, a tapered surface is provided at a predetermined position on a moving path of the card table. The engaging/holding member is slid on the tapered surface to move in a direction perpendicular to the card-table moving direction, whereby the card is firmly put between the engaging/holding member and the card table.
The card transporting mechanism suffers from the following problems to the solved, however. In the transporting mechanism, the card table is moved and the engaging/holding member slides on the tapered surface. During the course of the sliding of the engaging/holding member, it gradually holds the card on the card table. Because of this structure, the card must be moved by use of a take-in roller or the like until the card is firmly held, so as not to shift a position of the card relative to the moving card table from its correct position. Actually, it is very difficult to make a moving speed of the card table to be equal exactly to a feeding speed of the roller. Where a difference between those speeds becomes large, the taken-in roller will be scraped or ground, and the card will come off.
In the card transporting mechanism, the card is held by the utilization of the tapered surface. In other words, it is impossible to release the card from being held at other positions than a position at which the tapered surface is provided, and the card is inevitably released at the position at which the tapered surface is provided. For this reason, during its use, it is impossible to change the card transporting path to another card transporting path in accordance with another card to be used. In other words, when the card is transported passing the card-transporting path, the card must be transported while the card is firmly held on the card table. When the current card transporting path is changed to another card transporting path, the card must be removed from the card table. However, in the conventional card transporting mechanism, it is impossible to hold the card or releasing the card from being held when the card is on the card transporting path.
There is known a card reader which comprises a first card drive system for transporting a card to and receiving it from an card entrance, a second card drive system for performing a read/write operation of data to and from the card received from the first card drive system while transporting the card (when the received is a magnetic card) or after the card is transported to a predetermined position (when the card is an IC card), a motor capable of transporting the card in a card take-in direction and a card discharging direction by switching the rotational direction between a forward direction and a reverse direction, and a clutch mechanism for selectively transmitting a rotational force of the motor to the first or second card drive system. In this type of the card reader, it is necessary to transmit the forward and reverse rotational forces of the motor to the first card drive system or the second card drive system. A general measure has been taken for satisfying this necessity is to switch the transmission path of the rotational force by the motor by use of an electromagnetic clutch.
However, the electromagnetic clutch is expensive, and the measure to switch the transmission path of the rotational force by the motor by use of an electromagnetic clutch needs increased cost to manufacture, and hence makes it difficult to reduce cost and weight. Additionally, where the electromagnetic clutch is used, power consumption is great.
In the card reader, a shutter opening/closing mechanism is provided at the card entrance (gate) for the purpose of preventing crimes and mischief. A conventional shutter opening/closing mechanism is arranged such that, as shown in FIG. 34, an card entrance 5101 is entirely closed with a shutter plate 5103 of which the center of rotation lies at one of the right and left sides of the shutter plate 5103. Specifically, when a solenoid 5104 is operated, the shutter plate 5103 is turned about a support shaft (center of rotation) to close the card entrance 5101. The shutter plate 5103 completely closes the card entrance 5101 in a manner that it is thrown down into a groove formed across the card transporting path. A closing state where the shutter plate 5103 is thrown into the groove is detected by a microswitch. When the card reader is in a stand-by state and the closing state cannot be detected, it is considered that a foreign matter is present between the card entrance 5103 and the groove. In this case, it is judged that a card trap member is applied thereto for the purpose of crimes, and the use of the card reader is prohibited.
In the shutter opening/closing mechanism, the card entrance 5101 is closed by turning the shutter plate 5103 about the support shaft 5102. At a location apart from the support shaft 5102, a depth of the groove into which the shutter plate 5103 is thrown may be selected to be L2. At a location near the support shaft 5102, the groove depth is selected to be L1 ( less than L2) at most. Therefore, when a card trap member is set at a location apart form the support shaft 5102, it may be detected relatively easily by a microswitch 5105. When it is set at a location near the support shaft 5102, if it is soft, the shutter plate 5103 is turned to a position substantially the same as the closing position of the shutter plate 5103. It is difficult to detect the card trap member by the microswitch 5105. In this sense, its detecting performance is poor.
Since the shutter plate 5103 is turned about the support shaft 5102, a necessary stroke quantity is secured at a location near the support shaft 5102 of the shutter plate 5103, it is necessary to increase a stroke quantity at a location apart from the support shaft 5102. Therefore, a large solenoid must be used for the solenoid 5104. When a user quickly inserts a card into the card reader, the card sometimes hits the shutter plate 5103. In order to reliably open the shutter plate 5103 when the card hits the shutter plate 5103 at a location apart from the support shaft 5102, it is necessary to increase the output of the solenoid 5104. This necessitates a large solenoid 5104.
The present invention relates to a card transporting mechanism which is capable of preventing the adverse effect by the difference between the moving speed of the card table and the transporting speed of the roller, and allowing the releasing of the card from being held at any position on the card transporting path.
The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and another object of the invention is to provide a method and mechanism for forcibly discharging a card which are capable of forcibly discharging a card by merely changing somewhat a card transporting mechanism indispensable to a card reader and without any additional mechanism and parts, to thereby secure cost and size reduction.
Accordingly, another object of the present invention is to provide a drive-force transmission mechanism which is low in manufacturing cost, easy in reducing size and weight, and is small in power consumption.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a card transporting mechanism which is well adaptable for a card reader by using a drive-force transmission mechanism.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a shutter opening/closing mechanism which has good performance of detecting a foreign matter, e.g., a card trap member, and enables a solenoid for driving the shutter plate to be reduced in size.